Atari Force Returns!

As I’ve said before, I really liked Atari Force. Yes, it was originally a home-video-game tie-in, but the 20-issue series by (as Mike Sterling reminds us), Gerry Conway and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez was good science fiction with a motley crew of characters beautifully drawn. Dart, the tough, tattooed bounty hunter, was my favorite.

“a retrospective hardcover book comprised of photos and concept artwork, as well as behind-the-scenes information and interviews with those involved in Atari’s history” — neat! I would love to know what eventually took the company down, since it seemed everyone I knew had one of their cartridge gaming consoles.

“original graphic novels and comics based on popular Atari properties such as Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Crystal Castles, and Tempest” — not so sure about this, since most of those games are simple shooters. I’m not sure what you’d take from the properties — other than the very well-known names.

Atari Force reprints — yay! I can see if the material still stands up. It’s not always worthwhile to go back to your childhood favorites. But in this case, I have faith.

Heidi’s coverage begins with a photo of the Atari 2600, their best-known game system, and I’m having flashbacks to the days when you actually had to screw things to your TV. Plug-and-play HDMI, scoff.

I, too, remember Atari Force fondly, and almost bought a second set last year from the used comic boxes at Frugal Muse in Madison. It feels like it still holds up.

Insofar as them creating new stories from some of the other classic Atari games , if they are as good as I remember the Star Raiders graphic novel being, then I’m game. Of course, my assessment is based off 11-year old self. I hadn’t realized the backstory on this particular graphic novel until I looked it up just now: